swing state showdown. a just released poll has good news and bad news for both candidates in the election battle grounds amid a campaign flap over welfare. guilty plea. jared loughner admits to the shooting spree that wounded congresswoman gabrielle giffords and wounded others. >> he will spend the remainder of his natural life in prison. seeking shelter, more than a million people in chien are a evacuated ahead of a powerful typhoon that left parts of the philippines underwater. tangled up. a police officer is called in to rescue a bull moose wrapped in a child's swing set. this is the "cbs morning news" for wednesday, august 8, 2012.

yes, i said moose. wait until you see that story. good to be with you. the rhetoric on the presidential campaign trial is heating up. this morning is the issue a flap over welfare work requirements and former president clinton is on this one. a just released poll carries good news for both candidates. manuel gallegus is in washington with more. good morning to you. >> good morning terrell. the latest poll shows that each candidate has certain advantages in key battleground states. across the board, women and younger voters appear to favor president obama over mitt romney. most say romney will be more likely to improve their personal financial situation. >> president obama is headed to the battleground to promote his plan. the president won the state in 2008. but he has more work to do if he hopes to win it again. the latest swing state poll from quinnipiac university, cbs news

an "the new york times" shows mitt romney with a five-point lead in the rocky mountain state. there's better news for the president in virginia where he has a four-point lead overall and in wisconsin where the lead bumps up to six. >> there's nothing like a good job. >> the majority of voters say the economy is their number one issue. and on that issue romney has a decisive lead in colorado and a slight edge in virginia. only wisconsin voters prefer president obama's handling of the economy. >> there's not another country on earth that wouldn't gladly trade places with the united states of america. >> a new mitt romney ad is drawing sharp criticism from the white house. it claims that president obama is trying to get rid of the work requirements needed to collect welfare. >> under obama's plan you wouldn't have to work or train for a job. they just send you a welfare check. >> the white house says it will give states a waiver from the requirements but only if the state can prove more people will

move off welfare with the change. >> this advertisement is categorically false and it is blatantly dishonest. >> romney defends the ad saying president obama is fostering a culture of dependency. now last night, bill clinton released a statement saying the allegations made in mitt romney's ad are false. it was clinton who signed those work requirements into law. but terrell, romney's campaign responded saying president obama was a vocal opponent of that law back in 1996. >> the back and forth continues. manuel gallegus in washington for us. gun control the same quinnipiac toll asked likely voters in colorado, virginia and wisconsin if tougher gun laws would prevent violent attacks and all three states the vast majority said no. the man accused of last year's deadly tucson shooting agreed to spend the rs of his life behind bars. jared loughner pleaded guilty to

19 counts of murder and attempted murder yesterday included the attempted assassination attempt of congresswoman gabrielle giffords. karen brown reports. >> jarod lee loughner pleaded guilty tuesday to the 2011 shooting rampage that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including his intended target then congresswoman gabrielle giffords. a thinner expressionless loughner repeated i plead guilty 19 times, one for each count. >> mr. loughner will spend the remainder of his natural life in prison with no possibility of parole. >> a federal judge ruled that months of psychotropic medication and counseling to treat loughner's schizophrenia made him competent to stand trial and enter please. >> for some survivors it was little comfort. >> i'm glad he knows what he did. it doesn't change the facts. >> the plea deal spares jared loughner from the death penalty and spares the survivors and the

victims' family from the pain of a lengthy trial. >> i grabbed him by throat and said don't move or i'll choke you. >> bill badger helped disarm loughner at the shooting scene in spite of his own injuries. he's relieved this is over. >> i just want him locked up so he's being punished for what he did but so he can never do something like that again. >> gabrielle giffords was not in the courtroom. she and her husband say they're satisfied with the plea deal and hope it will help them and the community recover and move forward. loughner is set to be sentenced on november 15th. karen brown, cbs news, tucson, arizona. >> officials in wisconsin are still searching for a motive in the attack on a sikh temple. a vigil was held to remember the victims. six people were killed by wade page. investigators say page was involved in the white supremacist movement. local police tell cbs' elaine

kwee h quijano, they don't believe it was premeditated. >> i don't think there's any indication this was a well thought out plan type thing. >> the first funerals for the victims are scheduled for friday. twitter has accepted a court order to identify a user who threatened a theater here in new york city. the threat was made against the long acre theater where mike tyson is appearing in a one-man show. the tweet read, people are going to die just like in aurora. an apparent reference to last month's theater shooting in colorado. four days ago the company had refused to comply with the subpoena. overseas, the egyptian military fired missiles on suspected militants killing at least 20. it happened near the border with israel and sinai following another attack on a protest. there were protests between police and armed men. militants wounded six people. on sunday, 16 border guards were killed. this is the first time egypt has fired missiles in the sinai since egypt's 1973 war with israel. in syria, rebels fighting

for control of aleppo were forced to abandon several frontline positions this morning and are running short on ammunition. president bashar al assad made an appearance on television. iran is one of the few countries backing assad. it's the first time assad has been seen in public in two weeks. eastern china got slammed by a typhoon this morning. the storm packing winds of 90 miles per hour triggered widespread flooding am hundreds of thousands were forced to evacuate from shanghai where all outdoor activities have been canceled. this is the third typhoon to hit china in less than a week. recovery efforts under way in the philippines following 12 days of torrential rain. the widespread flooding killed at least 11 people, nearly 800,000 were forced from their homes, many trapped on their roofs. hurricane ernesto made landfall early this yorng on the yucatan peninsula. ernesto has saend winds of 80 miles per hour. a dangerous storm surge of 1 to 3 feet is expected along with

heavy rain. the area is a popular tourist area. many have been vac yated. take a quick break on this wednesday morning. up in smoke. a major fire at a california oil refinery could be higher gas prices across the country. plus, a store clerk strikes back against a would-be robber. the showdown caught on camera. this is the morning news. ♪ [ acoustic guitar: upbeat ] [ dog ] we found it together. on a walk, walk, walk. love to walk. yeah, we found that wonderful thing. and you smiled. and threw it. and i decided i would never, ever leave it anywhere. because that wonderful, bouncy, roll-around thing... had made you play.

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then new activia breakfast blend. a great way to help start the day. mmm... creamy lowfat yogurt with grains in yummy breakfast flavors, like apple cinnamon. its hearty, with twice the protein of regular lowfat yogurt and helps regulate your digestive system. our morning routines are important, aren't they? new activia breakfast blend. here's a convenient store owner you do not want to mess with. he takes on a knife wielding robber with a broom stick, then with a flimsy display rack. this happened in massachusetts. the hooded thief and an accomplice retreat without any loot. the store owner says, look, he works 14 hours a day and wasn't about to give that robber any money. you messed with the wrong one. 48-year-old woman will be arraigned today in southern california for allegedly trying to kidnap a newborn baby. police in garden grove, southeast of los angeles, say

the suspect entered a hospital monday wearing nurses' scrubs. she allegedly put an infant in a tote bag and tried to leave. authorities say she told her husband she was pregnant and needed the baby. that baby was not harmed. cbs "moneywatch." the jobs market gets a boost. plus superheroes rescue disney's bottom line. ashley morrison with more. good morning, terrell. homeowners are getting better at making their mortgage payments. the percent of borrowers falling behind on loans is at a three-year low following positive news about the job market. on tuesday, the labor department said the number of job openings rose to 3.8 million in june. that is the most since july of 2008. but the competition is tough. there are more than three unemployed people for each opening. that news gave a boost to most overseas market, the nikkei rose 1% an the hang sang lost a fraction. strong corporate earnings sent stocks higher on wall street. the dow added 51 points and the

nasdaq gained 25 and closed above 13,000 for the first time since may. you may notice the price at the pump is on the rise again. according to aaa, the nationwide average for a gallon of regular is at $3.63. that's up about a quarter from just one month ago. and prices could go even higher because of this refinery fire in california. the chevron facility near san francisco caught fire on monday and sent huge plumes of black smoke hundreds of feet into the sky. the refinery is one of the nation's largest producing about 16% of the west coast's daily gasoline supply. with the refinery shut down, analysts say gas price this is the region could increase to more than $4 a gallon. iron man thor the hulk and captain america came to disney's rescue. the huge box office receipts for marvel's. the avengers helped to lift disney's third quarter earnings. the movie studio saw a more than

six-fold increase in profits from a year ago. but overall, disney's revenue missed expectations. terrell, that remind me. we need to get to a movie. >> i'm not a big movie watcher. it's not by habit. >> popcorn is calling me too. >> on it this weekend. ashley morrison in new york. coming up next, your weather forecast. in sports, she flew through the air with the greatest of ease for olympic gold. but he fell 400 pounds much iron on the back of his neck. tl 400 iron on the back of his neck. 4n on the back of his neck. this is the top ten advantage. this is sears.

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here's a look at the forecast in some cities. pac in new york, 86. partly cloudy skies in chicago, 81. thunderstorms in dallas, 102. sunny in los angeles, 91 degrees. let's check your national forecast. showers and thunderstorms from the southeastern portion of louisiana north up to florida and up the coast of southern virginia. the heaviest rain will fall from central georgia to the coastal carolinas. thunderstorms are also likely from maine to western pennsylvania and west texas and oklahoma. from the central plains to minnesota, most of of the west will be dry. in sports, another good day for u.s. olympians in london. most of them anyway. in women's gymnastics, aly raisman won the gold in the individual floor exercise and picked up a bronze on the balance beam. photo finish in the women's 100-meter hurdles. australian sally pearson beat harper.

her u.s. teammate kelly wells took the bronze. rafal rafalca, the horse co-owned by mitt romney's wife ann failed to qualify for the medal rounds. here's a look at the medal count headed into the 12th day of dpe tigs. china has 73 medals. including 34 gold. team usa in second with 70. 30 gold. britain and russia tied for third with 48. one frightening moment in men's weightlifting. matthias steiner, he lost his balance while trying to lift 432 pounds. the barbell came crashing down on his neck. he managed to walk off the platform but did not come back for another attempt. i guess not. to baseball now. angels at oakland. the a's homer four times starting with johnny gomez. back-to-back long balls in the sixth. norris and rosales. that put the a's up 9-0. the they struck back -- in

houston, pretty much national second baseman espinosa against the astros and espinosa wins this thing. he tied the game at 2. still tied in the 12th. an rbi single up the middle and half an inning later, a great catch by washington left fielder roger bern dina. that ended it. nats 3, stro's 2. >> my bad. fortunately, it was a lob from third baseman chavez. eppley laughed it off. tigers beat the yanks 6-5. finally, here is the best play of the week by a fan with a baby. you know how these things usually can go. monday night, cubs at san diego, foul rolls down third baseline and a padres fan with a baby in his right arm reaches over to snag the ball bare handed then calmly returns to his seat. look at the baby. no reaction.

no big deal, pops. thank you so much. you know we've seen babies fall before. thankfully, another happy ending. when we come back, how do you free a large moose snagged on a swing set? very, very carefully. we'll show you how this whole thing went down. chili's lunch break combos are a sizzling deal, starting at 6 bucks. try our new lunch-size chicken fajitas, sauteed onions and peppers topped with grilled chicken, served with soup or salad. chili's lunch break combos, starting at 6 bucks.

are made with sweet cherries and the crisp, clean taste of our cranberries. i cannot tell a lie -- 'tis tasty. okay, george washington, did you take my truck out last night? 'tis tasty.

. here's a look at the weather in some cities around the country. in d.c., partly sunny, 90 degrees. in atlanta, thunderstorms, 86. in st. louis, thunderstorms, 94. partly cloudy skies in denver, 94. partly cloudy in seattle, 72. nasa scientists are loving this. getting increasingly detailed messages and pictures from curiosity, the sophisticated new rover on mars. edward lawrence has the latest from the propulsion center in pasadena, california. >>ment first clol photo of the

red planet. it shows the crater where it touched down. >> this is the first color image of the landscape where we've landed. like i said, we'll talk about it some more in a second. i -- waited a long time for this to come back. >> nasa also released a 2.5 minute video of the plunge to the surface. a video camera captured the final moments as curiosity dropped through the atmosphere. it deployed this antenna allowing for a direct connection between mars and the earth without relaying through a satellite. nasa scientists are checking out the rover's systems to make sure everything works before trying to drive. >> i'm confident there will be a lot of surprises when we start looking around. >> next engineers will raise the mast on the rover. it can rotate and look around as it sends back high resolution color pictures. >> we can do focus now. and in color. >> it will be a couple of weeks before curiosity will be able to make a tour of the red planet and start to explore whether

there was ever life on mars. edward lawrence for cbs news, pasadena, california. now for a more down to earth story. a case of bull in chains. a bull moose in this case tangled in the chains of a backyard swing set in northern utah. this could have been bad. sheriff's deputy set to work with bolt cutters. the moose is like, look, i got this. once free, as you can see, the moose ran off into the woods. now meet the dolphin dog. kyra is a black labrador that finds dolphins for tourists. this is in the indian ocean. once kyra locates a pod of dolphins, she goes into the water and while she can't quite keep up with the graceful sea mammals, she clearly enjoys chasing them around. let's hope that kyra knows the difference between dolphins and sharks. by the way, those dolphins seem like they're game with this, too. fun stuff. coming up after your local news, an ingredient in curry

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. good morning. welcome to 9news now. it's wednesday, we're halfway there.

i'm jessica doyle. beverly farm letter have your traffic but first howard bernstein with your weather. we will likely get in the low 90s this afternoon. the allergy count came in yesterday. the grass pollen and mold spores were high. yeah. sorry about that. let's talk about this morning, though. we've got the day planner. i want to back up and show you this here. we're looking at -- oh, we've got the camera on london, the olympic stadium. cloudy across the pond. we've got clouds here as well. noontime temp 87 with mostly cloudy skies. there could be an afternoon shower or storm in a couple of spots, high of 90. did you see that water spout down toward benedict over the patuxent river. that formed just before 6:00. that is down here. this morning the high clouds keep streaming in from the southwest. you get toward western maryland and west virginia, you start to get into the clear. i think we'll get into that maybe later this afternoon. this morning watching one lone

shower or two here just toward the west of fredricksburg. you can see south of gold vain trying to -- goldvein trying to get through the wilderness area. a nice quiet morning and muggy morning. upper 70s here in town and on the bay. 72 leesburg and la plata. we're down to 70 in winchester. going to see highs in the upper 80s to low 90s. let's check in with beverly farmer in for monika with timesaver traffic. complicated ride only near the george washington parkway. an investigation on the parkway south of the beltway. northbound from mount vernon into old town and toward the roosevelt bridge had lanes open. this is the beltway in alexandria getting past eisenhower avenue where we're hovering the new conphysician -- we're loverring the new

configuration. no troubles to report for you on 66 as you head inside the beltway through falls church. eastbound in vienna, the work crew is set up along the left side of the roadway. beltway construction has been on the outer loop heading toward tysons and the inner loop past gallows road. they'll be pulling the barrels out any time now. in till vary spring, the work is set up on the inner loop. a couple of lanes able to get by. and down on the inner loop in green beth they were also picking up road work from the left side of the roadway. back to you. >> thank you, beverly. more than 100 montgomery county residents spoke out against pepco last night in rockville. >> they testified at a meeting of the maryland public service commission. the session focused on the company's performance during this summer's power outages. gary nurenberg has more on the meeting and the harsh language. >> reporter: why do this? >> the only way we get to hear

about the customers' experience is from you all directly. >> reporter: how is this for starters? witness number one. >> my comments are directed at the butcher the montgomery county, also known as pepco holding. pepco is a joke. >> reporter: no joke. the closest it got to raft senator. >> we had bomb craters but we had power. >> reporter: the become line on montgomery county power? >> badly designed, badly built, it's badly overseen, badly regulated and it's not working. >> reporter: the often heard bury the power lines. >> we had neighborhoods of over 1,000 residential units that were out from friday night till the following friday afternoon, and this is all underground. >> reporter: pepco was heavily criticized but so, too, was the public service board. >> you are buying their promises. you are giving into their lies. you do not question them